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C2EXRIGHT DEPOSHi 




SOME OF LIFE'S 
MYSTERIES 



ROLFE POMEROY CRUM 






Some of Life's Mysteries 



SOME OF 
LIFE'S MYSTERIES 



INTERPRETED IN THE LIGHT OF THE 
PRESENT WAR STRUGGLE 



BY THE REVEREND 

ROLFE POMEROY CRUM 



With a Commendatory Foreword by Bishop Fiske 



.^\ ' 



1918 

LYMAN BROS. Inc., PRINTERS 

SYRACUSE, N. Y. 




Copyright, 1918, by 
LYMAN BROS., Inc. 



AUG 13 



1518 
0)Ci.A503161 



'W» J 



FOREWORD 

The author of these addresses has just sailed for 
France for overseas duty. As he was leaving, his 
people asked him to print the addresses which they 
had found so helpful, first as a souvenir of his 
ministry, to leave with them till his return ; second, 
as a message of faith which they might pass on to 
others. 

I am glad to find one of our clergy bravely speak- 
ing in this simple, direct and personal way on the 
problems of life and giving his answer to questions 
which all lare asking in these dark days. 

I have not heard all the addresses, but I have 
heard about them ; and what I hear tells me that 
the speaker succeeded admirably in driving home 
one great central truth which we all need to learn 
now as never before. Life was not meant to be 
merely the pursuit of happiness. Men become fine 
in character through conflict. The real purpose of 
life is to bui'ld up character — such a character as is 
Avorthy of immortality. Jesus Christ came to help 
us, by His life and example, to tread the road to 



vi FOREWORD 

victory. He came, not to make life easy, but to 

make men great. That is a splendid message for 

us in these times. It is a message I have been glad 

to give in many ways myself and a message I am 

glad to find others also anxious to give in their 

way. 

CHARLES FISKE. 

Bishop^s House, 
Syracuse, 1918. 



A Vision 

I beheld in a night-vision, and lo, a single great 
Star, shining brightly in the heavens. And I said, 
"What is this?" And a Voice made reply, saying, 
"It is God's service flag. He has sent His Son 
into the world for the sake of the noble and the 
true and the good." And I saw that the star shone 
a bright gold. 

Then I looked and behold, many stars appeared 
one by one around the great bright Star, so many 
that no man could number them. And I asked, 
"What are these and whence came they?" Then 
the Voice made reply, "These are they who have 
laid down their lives in the spirit of the Master for 
all that is good and honorable and holy in the world. 
They have come out of great tribulation and have 
washed their robes and made them white in the 
blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the 
throne of God." 

And the stars shone so many and so bright that 
the whole heaven was lightened by them and the 
darkness of the night vanished. 

R. P. C. 



Contents 

The Mystery of Tribulation .... 3 

The Mystery of Temptation . . . . 17 

The Mystery of Pain 31 

The Mystery of Death 45 



The Mystery of Tribulation 



SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 



The Mystery of Tribulation 

There are within each of us two natures, a pessi- 
mistic and an optimistic nature, and the two are 
continually struggling against each other. It is 
this fact which makes the world so mysterious to 
us and causes us to swing from one extreme to the 
other, to vacillate and hesitate and go through life 
in wonderment and bewilderment. That is the rea- 
son St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans can 
write : "For we know that the whole creation 
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now," 
and then a few sentences farther on in the same 
letter can add, "And we know that all things work 
together for good to them that love God." These 
two statements would seem to be absolutely contra- 
dictory. The one expresses the extremely pessi- 
mistic view, the other the extremely optimistic view, 
and both are true, s'ays St. Paul. One day all the 
good things of life come trooping in toward us, 
health, friends, pleasures, happy labors well accom- 
plished, and we meet life with a cheery smile and 
a joyful outstretched hand. It is a good world 
indeed, yes, the best possible of worlds. We are 
glad we are alive and we make melody all the day. 



4 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

But then there comes to our door on the very next 
day a series of disappointments tripping each other 
up in their efforts to get to us, our best laid plans 
"gang a-gley," sickness corrodes our outlook on life, 
death strikes down this one or that who is near 
and dear to us and life takes on a leaden greyish 
cast. We are brought near to the heartaches of 
humanity and the pain and suffering of all forms 
of life, and we feel that "the whole creation 
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." 
So it is impossible to say that one man is a pessi- 
mist and another an optimist. Human nature re- 
fuses to be thus catalogued. It is both. Yet we 
know that the world remains practically the same, 
whatever our estimate of it. It is only that there 
are so many conflicting elements in it, so many 
contradictory aspects. At one time certain of them 
come home to us and depress us and at another 
time certain others enter our hearts and uplift us. 

The reason that there is so much mystery about 
the world is because our view is foreshortened. 
We can see only the immediate in matter of time, 
the near at hand in terms of the individual. The 
fact that tribulation comes to us does not mean that 
the amount of tribulation in the world has been in- 
creased or the mystery of tribulation in a world 
controlled by a good God is any more difficult. Be- 
cause death comes near to us, rending our very 
heart asunder, it is not therefore true that life in 



THE MYSTERY OP TRIBULATION 5 

this world is any more cruel than when it flowed 
along like a song — others were suffering, others 
were dying, even then. Nor does it indicate that 
death itself may not be a very good thing in the 
dispensation of Providence. We see only a little 
way ahead, we do not see things in the large, we 
do not see them as God sees them. 

It is necessary for us to look at things, so far 
as in us lies, from God's viewpoint to get the long 
view of things. That is the purpose of such a 
course of addresses as this. We cannot attempt 
to solve all the mysteries which we have before us 
but perhaps we can get a glimpse of the way they 
must appear to God, so that to use the famous words 
of the astronomer who discovered the solar system, 
"We are thinking God's thoughts after Him." 

When we consider creation in its largest sense 
we are confronted at once with two questions. How 
was it made? and why was it made? We can only 
answer the why by the how, and we cannot answer 
either the why or the how without starting from 
God as the source of all things. Let me explain. 

I. How was the world created? Scientists tell us 
that all life was originally a small speck of proto- 
plasm like a jellyfish ; that this became differentiated 
in the various and multitudious forms which we 
have in the world today and that the world 
itself was once part of the sun, which was a 



6 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

great fiery cloud or nebula from which the universe 
originated. This is all speculation. The truth is, 
scientists know no more about it than does the 
ordinary man, but they are more daring in their 
guesses. Granting the truth of these speculations, 
no science can fully explain the origin of things. 
You always have something left unaccounted for. 
The fact that shoes are made now by very com- 
plicated machinery does not remove the necessity 
of presupposing a shoemaker who starts that ma- 
chinery going. And in the same way the theory of 
evolution does not do away with a Creator who 
placed the speck of protoplasm here in the world 
and saw^ to it that all these forms of life came from 
it. Who created the fiery cloud or nebula and 
caused to be broken off from it the earth and the 
other planets? There can be but one answer, God. 
He is the cause and these other things are but 
effects. They are not causes themselves, they are 
effects. He alone is the final cause and the source 
of all things. 

The man who beholds creation and denies God 
must be mentally undeveloped. He is not fully 
a man. He is what alienists would call a "sub- 
normal." What the psalmist said thousands of 
years ago is still perfectly true : "The fool hath said 
in his heart, 'There is no God.' " How can one 
have eyes and be so blind in understanding! How 
can one have ears and be so deaf to the voice of 
reason ! If God did not bring the universe into 



THE MYSTERY OF TRIBULATION 7 

being, who did or what did? If God is not the 
source of life in the universe, then who is? I can- 
not understand how anyone in the face of all the 
testimony of creation can deny God and I am utterly 
amazed at the carelessness and indifference and 
blasphemy of men, who, though they must recognize 
that there is a Maker of all things, never pay any 
attention to Him, never bow down to Him or wor- 
ship Him or pray to Him. 

Let us go further. God is not only the Creator 
of all things. He is the sustainer of all things. 
He did not create the world as one might a great 
machine and then let it run by itself. He is in the 
world. He is sustaining the world. The laws of 
nature and of mind are His laws. They are the 
way He works in the world. 

As we look upon creation we find as it were two 
worlds, an outer and an inner, a physical and 
spiritual. The physical world we call nature, the 
spiritual world we call mind. Matter is what we 
can see, feel, touch and taste, but mind is invisible 
and intangible. Yet we experience it more vividly 
than matter, for we ourselves are minds and our 
thoughts are closer to us than hands and feet. So 
different are these two worlds that it seems as if 
there were a distinct cleavage in the universe and, 
though matter affects mind and mind affects mat- 
ter, nevertheless the two are radically different. 
This difference has been so keenly felt that some 



8 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

religions have presupposed two Gods and even so 
modern and able a writer as H. G. Wells in his 
book, "God the Invisible King" (which is a product 
of the war) has claimed there must be a Creator of 
the Material World, which he calls "The Veiled 
Being," and a God of the Human Soul. 

In order to avoid such a dualism, it is necessary 
to reduce these two worlds of matter and mind to a 
single principle. That has always been the ten- 
dency of thinkers on the subject — to bring the two 
to a single principle. 

But what shall the principle be? 

Materialists say matter. All thought, they say, 
is the product of the working of certain brain- 
cells. As these cells decay the mind weakens and 
when at last they cease their activity, death, the 
end of all thinking, is the result. 

Such an argument is not an explanation but an 
assumption and arouses more difficulties than it 
does away with. There is nothing in common be- 
tween the thought of goodness, let us say, and 
the activity of a brain-cell — absolutely nothing. 
You could not in any way derive the one from the 
other. The brain could not by any possibility be 
the cause of thinking. It may be the medium, the 
instrument for thought-transference as the electric 
wires carry the current, but it is not the cause, any 
more than those wires are the cause of the elec- 
tricity. The decaying brain may hamper the con- 
ducting of thought in cases of insanity or senility, 



THE MYSTERY OP TRIBULATION 9 

as a faulty wire may impede the progress of the 
electrical current. But after the total dissolution 
of the body, the spirit continues just the same, inde- 
pendent of the body, as we know there is static 
electricity everywhere in the atmosphere about us, 
though unconducted by wires. 

Those who claim that mind is the single principle 
which will explain everything have a better case. 
They are the idealists in the world of thinkers. They 
say matter is impossible without a mind. There 
must be a mind to receive the sensations of feeling, 
tasting, smelling. If we did not have these senses, 
there would be no such thing as matter. The ob- 
jects of the world that we see, therefore, are con- 
structs of the mind. In this sense, it may be said 
that we make the external world. Without a mind 
to experience it, it would be impossible that there 
should be a world. But, you ask, doesn't the table 
upon which I am writing or the chair upon which 
I am sitting exist even though there be no one here 
in the room to see them or touch them? One can- 
not say as to that, because as soon as we return 
here or look iin at the window to find out, there is 
always someone, (i. e., ourselves) to see these 
things. 

It really does not concern us what happens when 
we are not here; the real reason these things are 
always here when we come back to them is because 
they are so held in a co-ordinated system by the 
laws of God. Every thing in the world is the 



10 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

thought of God, and the reason that every thing 
is so logical and orderly is because God's mind is 
supremely logical and orderly. God is the cause 
of our seeing and tasting and smelling. These are 
thoughts which He thinks first for us in an orderly, 
consistent system. The material world is not out- 
side of us. The ideas we have of it come from 
God. They are the effects, God is the cause. 

This may all, perhaps, sound like mere theoretical 
and impractical reasoning; but it has a great prac- 
tical value for us. It shows how closely we are 
linked to God, how our very thoughts concerning 
the world are His thoughts, how our very minds are 
in essence parts of His mind as the leaves are part 
of the tree. It shows that we are absolutely de- 
pendent upon God. That is what St. Paul meant, 
I think, when he said to the Athenians on Mars 
Hill, "In Him we live and move and have our 
being." God is everywhere about us, continually 
present with us, sustaining us all the day long. 
There is nothing in the world, no detail however 
small, of which God is not aware. "There is no 
searching of His understanding. He trieth the 
reins and the heart." 

Sometimes we think that we are so little in com- 
parison with the vastness of creation, surely God 
does not care for us. He is not concerned with such 
trivial things as ourselves and what we do. Then 
it is well for us to remember that God's creative 



THE MYSTERY OF TRIBULATION 11 

power is continually operating in the world, to the 
smallest blade of grass; that there is nothing in 
creation outside of His knowledge. "Thou, God, 
seest me and knowest me through and through." 
And if it is true that God knows all things, there 
is a still greater truth, that He cares for us, loves 
us as persons, because He has made us in His own 
image and given us the longing for Himself. "What 
is man that Thou art mindful of him and the son 
of man that Thou visitest him ? For Thou hast made 
him a little lower than the angels and hast crowned 
him with glory and honor." 

II. If God loves us and knows our every thought 
and also controls every event that happens in the 
universe, why, you ask, is it what it is? "For we 
know that the whole creation groaneth and travail- 
eth in pain together until now." Surely the world 
as we know it is not a world so designed as to give 
happiness to the inhabitants thereof. We some- 
times agree with the wit who said that he wished 
he had been present on creation day, he would have 
had some suggestions to make. There seems to 
be an utter disregard for human comfort, yes, even 
for human life — extremes of cold and heat, famine 
and thirst, earthquakes, tornadoes, lightning and 
tempest — nature is no respecter of persons. Add 
to these dangers from the elements the dangers of 
war, the machines of destruction, the cannon and 
the. bomb, the poisonous gas and the submarine — 



12 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

and it seems as if God did not care about human 
beings. God allows these things. Why? Why 
did He not create a Utopia where there should be 
no more war, why does he not create a Beulah 
land where sorrow and sighing shall flee away and 
w^here there shall be singing and joy all the day? 
It is quite evident that if we are to reconcile the 
seeming disregard for human life with the good- 
ness of God, we must presuppose another life be- 
yond this. I shall not at this time summon any 
other reasons why we should believe in such a future 
life. I shall do that in another chapter, the one 
upon the "Mystery of Death." But even if the 
resurrection of our Lord had not revealed it to us 
or if the Church had not taught it, necessarily we 
should have to come to the conclusion that there 
is a life beyond, a life so much better than this 
life that those who live the shortest time here and 
are taken there are the happiest; that there all the 
injustices of this life shall be readjusted and "there 
shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, 
neither shall there be any more pain, for the former 
things are passed away." 

See how different such a faith makes everything 
in this world. Life here in this world is but a prep- 
aration for life in the next. This is but a school 
where we are tested and tried to see if we are 
worthy. This life is a struggle through which we 
are developed and made strong. Everything that 



THE MYSTERY OP TRIBULATION 13 

comes to us, all the hard things of life, all the sor- 
rows and anxieties and obstacles and temptations, 
are sent us to make us stronger men. Once we 
realize this, once we adopt the fighting attitude 
of mind and set our teeth with firm determination 
not to go down in defeat, but to prove ourselves 
worthy, then we shall discover that a wonderful 
miracle is being wrought within us, whereby we go 
from strength to strength ; then we shall realize 
what St. Paul meant when he said, "All things 
work together for good to them that love God," 
not all things work together for the physical com- 
fort or the mental ease, but for the spiritual good, 
for the growth in grace, of them that love God. 
If we are worthless and unfit, then let our path 
through life be primrosed with every pleasure and 
let not trouble come near us ; but if we want to be 
men and grow into strong sons of the living God, 
then let our way be jagged and steep and our feet 
bleeding and lacerated from the sharp stones. "He 
that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will 
be his God and he shall be My son." 



The Mystery of Temptation 



The Mystery of Temptation 

Let us start with two verses from the same 
chapter of the Epistle to St. James that seem to 
giive us flatly opposing statements : "Blessed is the 
man that endureth temptation." "Let no man say 
when he is tempted, I am tempted of God." Here 
we have a concrete problem with two solutions 
offered, one which says that temptation is a good 
thiing and comes as a blessing to a man, the other 
of which says temptation is a bad thing and can not 
come from God. 

St. James is writing here under the fire of perse- 
cution. He knows what are the terrible tempta- 
tions to which his flock are subject. How easy 
by a word to deny their allegiance to the Master 
and thus escape the jaws of the lion ! How easy 
by a single act to bow down and worship the em- 
peror's statue, when the alternative is being burned 
to death at the stake ! Yes, St. James feels the 
full force of temptation — the temptation to coward- 
ice — as he writes, and yet what are the words he 
writes? Are they. Wretched is the man, sad, 
miserable he who endureth temptation? No, these 
are the words : "Happy is he who endureth temp- 
tation." 

Happiness ! How could that possibly be derived 
from temptation? How could they who meet the 



17 



18 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

martyr's death be happy? How could they sing 
who were being burned at the stake? And yet 
they did. St. James goes on to tell why: "Happy 
is the man that endureth temptation ; for when he 
is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which 
the Lord hath promised to them that love Him." 

Here we have what seems to be an absolute con- 
tradiction. On the one hand, we are told that 
temptation is a good thing for a man. "Blessed is 
he — that is, happy he — who endureth temptation" 
and on the other hand, we are told that temptation 
does not come from God who is the giver of all 
good things. Yet these two statements are written 
by the same man and stand next to each other in 
the same chapter of the same letter. 

The apostle knew that the temptation to coward- 
ice did not come from God. God does not want 
Hi'S children to be cowards. He wants them to be 
brave sons of His, like the One Whom He sent 
into the world to be their example, who bore suf- 
ferings and sorrows, rejection and failure, insults 
and disgrace, the scourge and the cross, without 
complaint but with perfect love for mankind and 
with entire trust in His Heavenly Father. And so 
the apostle in the very next line of the letter writes : 
"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted 
of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither 
tempteth He any man." These temptations come 
from our own selfishness, our desire for the things 
of this world, its pleasures and comforts./'^ 



THE MYSTERY OF TEMPTATION 19 

It is the same temptation that the early Christians 
met which is coming now to every able-bodied 
young man in our country today — the temptation 
to cowardice. I am not talking to those who are 
restrained by the necessity of supporting those who 
are really dependent upon them. I am not talking to 
those who are in necessary occupations here and can 
not be dispensed with. I ^am talking to those who 
are uncertain, those who when the call comes to 
take up arms in defense of innocence and m sup- 
port of righteousness, know they ought to go but 
can not make up their minds to go. The nation has 
issued the call. Here is the alternative — to accept 
it or reject it. 

"Once to every man and nation comes the moment 
to decide, 
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the 
good or evil side." 

Your nation has made the decision. Have you? 
Let me say you will never be satisfied with your- 
self, you will never have that peace of mind which 
is so essential to spiritual growth, until you do 
make your decision for that which is noble and good. 
Peace is the crown of life which God promises to 
them who do His will. "Blessed is the man that 
endureth temptation ; for when he is tried, he shall 
receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath prom- 
ised to them that love Him." It is so easy to 



20 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

pamper oneself with physical comforts and to be- 
come wedded to the round of fancied pleasures, 
when all the time the cry goes up over there for 
men and more men. 

And I say to the fathers and mothers and sisters 
and sweethearts — the same temptation comes to 
you — the temptation to cowardice. It is easy to 
tell one we love and to whom we' cling, that he 
should not go, to beg him not to go, to weep over 
him when he does go. But do you know what 
you are doing thereby? You are making the separa- 
tion doubly difficult. You are weakening him in 
his determination, you are discouraging him, you 
are sapping his manly spirit. When you bid him 
goodbye, let there be no tears — if these must needs 
come, let them be in the quiet of the night 
hours — but when you say goodbye let there be only 
a smile and a word of encouragement: "My boy, 
I am proud of you. Be brave, be clean, be strong, 
and we are going to pray for you that God will 
help you to be such. We know that you are doing 
the right thing, the noble thing, the thing the 
Master would have you do. God bless you, God 
bless you." 

"Yes," you say, "but our boy, he was always 
brought up in our peaceful home, we have been 
very careful of him, he knows little of the world, 
the sins and the vices of the great outside, he knows 
nothing of hardships and loneliness and pain." 

My answer is, then it is time that he learned. 



THE MYSTERY OF TEMPTATION 21 

He must learn the difference between innocence and 
righteousness. 

This is the first of three distinctions which I 
wish to make in discussing the subject of temp- 
tation. I think we shall better understand the mean- 
ing and value of temptation in life, if we make 
clear these distinctions. They are: (1) We must 
distinguish clearly between innocence and right- 
eousness. (2) We must distinguish clearly be- 
tween temptation and sin. (3) We must distinguish 
clearly between sins and sinfulness. 

I. There is a great deal of difference between 
innocence and righteousness. One can not remain 
innocent all his life, for innocence means that one 
is unacquainted with temptation, has no knowledge 
of good and evil. But when one knows good and 
evil, and abhors that which iis evil and clings to 
that which is good, then is he a righteous man, 
then is he a conqueror over sin. 

The ancient allegory of the Garden of Eden will 
help us to make the distinction clear. No story 
from the Bible has been so misinterpreted and 
sneered at and jested about as this from the first 
chapters of Genesis. It is because literally-minded 
people have insisted upon taking as history what 
was meant to be an allegory and have ignored its 
true spiritual meaning. The story is not told to 
show original sin but original innocence. It is not 
told to show that all men are born sinful by inheri- 



22 SOME OF LIFE'S MYiSTERIES 

tance, rather it is told to show that all men are born 
innocent and of divine heritage. Divinity is our 
birthright and not sin. 

God made Adam, so the ancient allegory goes, 
a perfect man, in entire innocence, and surrounded 
him with every earthly blessing, but Adam by dis- 
obedience to God's command forfeited the right to 
those blessings, and was cast out of the beautiful 
Garden. God could make Adam innocent but He 
could not make him righteous. Innocence means 
ignorance of sin, but righteousness means conquest 
over sin. 

Does not each of us repeat in his life-history that 
Genesis story? The babe is born as pure as the 
dew from heaven. 

"Not in entire forgetfulness, 

Not in utter nakedness, 
But trailing clouds of glory do we come 

From God who is our home." 

The growing child lives amid a world of beauty. 
It is a veritable Garden of Eden to him. There 
is joy and song on every hand, and everything *.s 
good as the gift of God. He knows no bad, but 
only that certain things are forbidden him, as God 
himself forbade the fruit of the tree of knowledge 
to Adam. Everything to the child is bathed in 
God's sunshine. 



THE MYSTERY OF TEMPTATION 23 

"There was a time when meadow, grove and 

stream 
The earth, and every common sight, 

to me did seem 
Apparelled in celestial light." 

But there comes a time in the life of the growing 
boy or girl when they ask the question, "Why 
not?" — when they must reason things out for them- 
selves and learn the difference betwen good and 
evil. They can not longer be forced to obey, their 
reason must be appealed to. They are no longer 
to be protected and kept in ignorance, they must be 
strengthened in the inner man to withstand the 
crafts and subtleties of the devil. Then their inno- 
cence ripens into righteousness. They must decide 
for the good and reject the evil. A conscience has 
been born in them which makes them entirely dif- 
ferent. 

It is true that this process of rebirth is often- 
times painful, that so much seems to be lost of 
all that was glorious before. 

"It is not now as it hath been of yore 
Turn wheresoe'er I may 
By night or day 
The things that I have seen I now can see 
no more." 

The Garden has vanished where everything was 
so beautiful and good, and in its place stretch out 



24 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

before us two roads, the one broad and winding, 
leading to destruction, the other straight and nar- 
row but leading to eternal life. It is true that the 
youth may choose the wrong way, it is certain that 
he will blunder about a good deal and even get 
lost, but it is only through the freedom of choice 
of the two roads that the strong sons of God are 
made. That is the reason God has given us 
freedom. He would rather have us as conquerors 
than have us as babes. He would rather have us 
as men than have us as puppets. He would rather 
attract us by the power of His love to the love of 
righteousness, than compel us by the power of His 
will. 

And I ask you parents, would you not rather have 
it so with your own boy? Would you not rather 
have him learn to fight all forms of sin in the world 
than not to know, to be kept in ignorance of all 
sin and all hardship? Would you not rather have 
him a man than a moral weakling? I would not 
minimize the risk involved, I know the chances 
of his blundering and his wilfully setting himself 
in opposition to the good, but the reward of right- 
eousness is far greater than the cost of the struggle. 
"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for 
when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life, 
which the Lord hath promised to them that love 
him." The crown of life — what does that mean? 
It means the fullness of joy in victory over oneself, 
in a battle well fought. 



THE MYSTERY OF TEMPTATION 25 

II. The second distinction I wish to make is 
that between temptation and sin. It is no sin to be 
tempted. Our Lord Himself was tempted. Not 
once, but many times, the devil appeared ; now in 
the wilderness; again in the form of the multitude 
who clamored for a physical sign, a sensational 
manifestation of His divinity; again in the voice of 
Peter who tried to dissuade Him from going the 
Way of Sorrows ; finally in the agony of the Garden 
of Gethsemane, when He prayed that the cup should 
pass from Him, but when He conquered over fear 
and prayed again, "Not My will but Thine be done.'' 
Our Lord was tempted in all points like as we 
are, yet without sin. He threw off temptation as 
a rock throws off the waves of the sea. It is not 
sin to be tempted, but it is sin to yield to tempta- 
tion. And by yielding I do not necessarily mean 
the performance of the act which the temptation 
demands. Assent to sin is sin. When we say "yes'' 
to the temptation, we are virtually committing the 
sin. The cashier in the bank who is deterred from 
absconding with the bank's funds simply by the 
fear of being caught, who keeps saying "I would 
if I dared," is a thief at heart. Yes, he is worse 
than a thief, he is both thief and coward. 

The reason we have temptations iis not because 
God sends them to us but because our lower na- 
ture suggests them to us. "Let no man say when 
he is tempted, *I am tempted of God.' " If you want 
to personalize it, call it the devil in us. Indeed, it 



26 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

is truly a personal Satan who makes the sugges- 
tions ; they come from without, although our lower 
nature admits them within. But there is also the 
God in us. There is also the divine nature 
which is continually warring against the lower. If 
we allow the lower nature to rule we are of the 
earth, earthy. If we allow the higher nature to rule, 
we are obedient to the heavenly vision. The lower 
nature is our heritage from the animal kingdom, 
the spirit which insists upon the I, the greedy, 
grasping, selfish spirit which seeks to preserve and 
enlarge the individual at all costs. But the divine 
spirit is our heritage from God, the spirit of love 
and unselfishness and true service, only in obedience 
to which the most abiding peace and the fullest 
joy and the richest life can be found. The two na- 
tures are always struggling against each other, but 
one, the highest, constitutes our true selves, the 
self which God intends us to be. The other is an 
intruder, a usurper, a thing foreign to our true 
nature, and if we yield to it we are selling our divine 
birthright for a mess of pottage. For the heights of 
our experience constitute our true selves. The 
noblest thought we ever had, the greatest act of 
self-sacrifice we ever made, the most fervent prayer 
we ever uttered, the most vital faith we ever ex- 
perienced — these are our true self, these are what 
we are. Let us not debase that self by yielding to 
our lower selfish nature at any time. 



THE MYSTERY OP TEMPTATION 27 

III. We must distinguish finally between sins and 
sinfulness. It has been said that the modern man 
is not greatly troubled about his sins. If that is 
so, something is wrong. He would be greatly 
troubled if he had a bad cough and a high fever and 
ached in every bone. He would at once call a phy- 
sician because he would know these are symptoms 
of disease. One's sins that he commits bear the 
same relation to sinfulness as symptoms to a disease. 
One's sins are the symptoms but the disease is 
deeper-seated in the soul — a state of sinfulness. 
When one commits sins he is proceeding in direct 
opposition to God's will and that is the really great 
sin — not the lie that he told or the money that he 
stole. These are manifestations, they are indica- 
tions of the sinful heart, but one may have the sinful 
heart, though he does none of these things. He 
may wilfully separate himself from God, be indiffer- 
ent to Him, refuse to obey Him, rebel against Him, 
become alienated from Him — that is sinfulness. 
Sinfulness is whatever destroys that beautiful re- 
lationship of love between God and His children. 
God's love is unchangeable. He is ever seeking us, 
ever pleading with us, ever begging us to come 
back to Him. If there is some reason why we are 
far from God we are to blame, we have erected a 
barrier, we have closed the door and that barrier 
is our sinful selfish wills which are opposed to His 
will. "Behold I stand at the door and knock. If 
any man will open unto me I will come in and will 



28 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

sup with him." O let us break that barrier down, 
let us open wide the door and place our hands in 
His and ask Him to enter and let His will have 
entire control over ours. 

And never doubt that, if we do this, He will give 
us His strength to make us strong. It will take 
a struggle at first, but there is one way and only 
one way to win out — by prayer. We cannot de- 
pend upon ourselves in this battle. We must ask 
God's power to come into our hearts, and then we 
must ask again and again and again. "Pray with- 
out ceasing," morning, noon and night, wherever 
you are, in the office, in the home, in the shop, turn 
your thoughts heavenward. Fight your temptations 
with your prayers and you cannot fail to win. With 
every victory you will be made stronger, with every 
temptation conquered you will be given greater re- 
sistance, until at last the temptation will leave you, 
yes, with a blessing, as Jacob was given a blessing 
after that struggle lasting all the night through, as 
Jesus was left with the blessing after those forty 
days in the wilderness. "Then the devil leaveth 
Him, and behold angels came and ministered unto 
Him." 



The Mystery of Pain 



The Mystery of Pain 

Pain is one of the most vitally real things in life ; 
indeed it is at the foundation of life. All must suf- 
fer, some more, some less, but none escape suf- 
fering. As St. Paul says, "The whole creation 
groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now." 
There is first of all spiritual pain — anxiety, despond- 
ency and remorse, which, though more subtle than 
bodily pains, are none the less real. There is sick- 
ness, with all that it means of bodily decay. There 
is finally physical suffering, which is on every hand, 
both in the human and the animal kingdom. 

What is the reason for all this pain in life ? Surely 
God would never have allowed it unless there were 
some reason for it. It is written over the face of 
nature in too large letters to be ignored. 

Consider the great increase of pain caused by 
this war. When one goes through the hospitals in 
France and sees men with arms and legs cut off, 
and faces mutilated beyond recognition, our own 
familiar aches and discomforts seem unreal in com- 
parison. 

In considering the subject of pain and its mean- 
ing in life, I would ask you to recall the purpose of 
this course of addresses ; to look, in so far as we 
can, upon the world as God sees it. I would ask 
you to get the long view of things and to rise above 



31 



32 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

all self centredness and every partial viewpoint, in 
order to behold things in the large. I know how 
hard it is when one is in the throes of agony, when 
one is tossing all the weary night through on a 
bed of pain, to think that this pain is necessary or 
that there is a reason for it; but let us, when we 
are well and strong, fortify ourselves against those 
times of doubt by having some well worked-out 
philosophy of life which will not succumb to the 
inroads of suffering. Let us ask ourselves two 
fundamental questions: First, How did pain come? 
and secondly, How are we to meet it? 

I. How did pain come into the world? 

It is evident that pain is in some way connected 
with sin. Our moral sense, our sense of justice, tells 
us it must be so. We hear men ask with regard to 
one who is suffering much, "What has he done that 
he should have such punishment?" and you will 
remember that the disciples asked of Jesus, "Master, 
who did sin, this man or his parents?" Mark you, 
I do not say that pain comes as the result of the 
sin of the individual who suffers, but nevertheless 
it comes as the result of sin somehow, somewhere, 
sometime. 

In the structure of the universe it is written that 
sin brings with it miser}^ and suffering. These are 
the consequences of the breaking of God's laws. 
God supports His universe through His laws. They 
are His way of working in the world. They are 



THE MYSTERY OP PAIN 33 

not shackles on His hands and His feet. They are 
His hands and His feet. 

These laws must work impersonally, regularly, 
immutably, or else they would be of no value and 
the universe would fall to pieces. I remember 
spending an afternoon witnessing the performances 
of a great prestidigitator. He plucked things out 
of the air that were not there before, he raised bodies 
from the floor by the mere word of his command. 
But the world in which he lived was one of chaos, 
and we all breathed a sigh of relief when the per- 
formance was over and we returned once more to 
the universe of law and order. We would not be 
able to live in a world where laws worked some- 
times and were suspended in their operations at 
other times. It would be an undependable world. 

The laws which support the physical universe 
may be used by man but must not be broken by 
him. The law of gravity, which makes walking 
possible, also makes falling possible, and falling is 
likely to be followed by pain. Fire, which warms 
our bodies, may also burn them, and burning is 
usually accompanied by pain. Every thing that 
God has given has its use and its mis-use, and the 
mis-use brings suffering as its consequence. That 
is the way God teaches us the right use of things — 
through suffering. 

This is not only true of the physical world, but 
of the moral universe as well. There are some 
diseases that come directly as the result of sin. 



34 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

They show God's condemnation of self indulgence. 
Indigestion comes as the result of gluttony. A 
weakened constitution, subject to all manner of 
disease, comes as the result of drunkenness. A 
cankered, germ-laden body comes as the result of 
impurity. But the individual who breaks God's 
moral laws is not the only one to suffer. Our hos- 
pitals, our orphans' homes, our insane asylums are 
filled with the victims of another's sins. Families 
ruined, homes destroyed, infants born blind or 
feeble-minded — surely "the sins of the fathers shall 
be visited upon the children unto the third and 
fourth generation of them that hate Me." 

We might go on and show how not only the 
grosser, bodily sins bring pain as their consequence, 
but the sins of the spirit, like selfishness and hate, 
cause spiritual misery, which though a more re- 
fined form of suffering is no less intense. 

I think we are now ready to formulate some con- 
structive philosophy as to the meaning of pain in 
life. 

God creates man in perfection, in His own image, 
capable of divinity. He gives him every good 
thing, He gives him also freedom of choice between 
the use and the mis-use of these good things. And 
what is the result? Man has gone stumbling, blun- 
dering, sinning, through countless generations ; mis- 
using the good, selling his divine birthright. God 
has hedged us about with laws which are for our 
benefit if properly obeyed, but the over-stepping 



THE MYSTERY OP PAIN 35 

of which is attended by fatal consequences. These 
consequences come not only to him who disobeys 
but to the entire human race. 

Of what does all this remind you? Is it not the 
ancient allegory of the Garden of Eden? That 
ancient story contains the germ of this important 
truth : sin is disobedience of God's laws, and brings 
with it pain not only to those who sin but to the 
whole human race. The story reveals to us the sin- 
fulness of sin and our corporate responsibility. 

We are knit together in one great social fabric. 
No man stands or falls alone ; either he lifts others 
up or he drags them down. There is no such thing 
as personal liberty to do wrong. That is a false, 
shallow and specious philosophy, for others have to 
suffer the consequences of the wrong doing of the 
one. The great principle of vicarious suffering is 
woven in the warp and woof of life. 

Is not the war teaching us the truth of that prin- 
ciple? Is it not forcing it home to us? These men 
who are enduring the pain and perils of war are 
not going to suffer for their own sins — many are 
of the noblest and highest minded of our generation 
— but for the greed and selfishness and hatred, 
which are the curse of the human race. And we 
must not think that these sins are exclusively char- 
acteristic of our enemies, but in so far as we are 
partakers, we are responsible for this war. 

To summarize how pain came into the world : 
God's plan for man is health and joy and happiness. 



36 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

But man through sin or disobedience of God's laws 

has brought misery and suffering upon himself. 

II. How shall we meet pain? 

The theoretical question leads us to the practical 
question : "How are we to meet suffering when it 
comes upon us?" So always theory leads to prac- 
tice. There can be no divorce between the two. 
We cannot discard theory and say to it, "get thee 
to a nunnery." There can be no right action with- 
out right thinking. 

(1) Pain should recall to us the sinfulness of sin. 

By that I do not mean necessarily personal sin, 
though it is well for us when we are laid low by 
sickness to look over our lives and see how far we 
are individually responsible for the suffering. Suf- 
fering, however, does not, as a rule, mean punish- 
ment. It may mean that, but not usually. "For 
whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth 
every son whom He receiveth." The good suffer 
for the sins of the wicked, the innocent are on the 
rack for the sins of the guilty. 

When suffering comes upon us, however, we 
must not be too hasty in declaring ourselves free 
from the corporate sins of humanity. All of us 
share in some degree those sins, and it is through 
suffering we are purged of them. It has a cleansing 
effect just as fire burns out that which is stubble. 
A wound very often has to be purified by caustic. 



THE MYSTERY OF PAIN 37 

So when suffering makes its abode' with us, we are 
to remember that it may be sent by God to cleanse 
our hearts and make us worthy vessels of His grace. 
As such we ought not to rebel but to welcome it. 

Why is it that, in the hospitals and sick rooms, 
we find often such sweet Christian souls reflecting 
the spirit of the Master even in their faces, and in 
their smiles? Is it not because they have gone 
through much suffering and been purged of pride 
and selfishness and arrogance? We see the un- 
godly grow fast and "flourish as the green bay tree" 
but sometime they too must be tested by fire, — if 
not now, then in the after life, for they cannot reach 
the heaven of God's companionship till all the gold 
is refined and the dross is consumed. That is what 
is meant by that ancient text, which seems so crude 
to us of this day, "Without the shedding of blood 
there is no remission." It means that without suf- 
fering there can be no purging from sins. Those 
who sin much here and suffer little will have to 
meet their suffering sometime, somewhere, and those 
who sin little and yet suffer much, here, are already 
purged and prepared to be received into the pres- 
ence of God. 

It must be so. Every instinct of our nature tells 
us it is so. Often we kneel beside a child's bed of 
pain, the little head tossing on the pillow, the tiny 
fingers clenched in anguish and the frail voice ask- 
ing why, why, and why, again. It all appears 
very black to us. And when that child is taken 



38 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

from our sight — often, it would seem, the best, the 
dearest, the saintliest — then may not our darkness 
be lightened by this thought : God wanted that soul 
for His heaven, as a flower in His garden. Through 
pain and suffering He was preparing that soul, the 
spirit was breaking the chains of the flesh, the seed 
was bursting the shell in which it was encased. 
"They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any 
more, neither shall the sun light on them nor any 
heat, and God shall wipe all tears from their eyes." 

(2) Suffering should recall to us our corporate 
responsibility. We have seen how closely knit to- 
gether we all are, not only by family ties but by 
social ties. Suffering is the link that binds us all — 
rich and poor, educated and ignorant, white or black. 
What then should be its teaching for us? Does it 
not speak to us of love and sympathy whereby all 
pride and avarice and arrogance are put away? 

Consider how the suffering caused by this war has 
made the whole world akin. Women are making 
bandages for soldiers they have never seen. Men 
are giving their time and risking their lives to help 
those in pain. And all are giving money for the 
alleviation of suffering. So the war has caused a 
marvelous growth in sympathy. It has wrought 
miracles in changing the petty, the selfish, the lazy, 
the sullen, the self-centered, into the loving and kind 
and generous and sympathetic. 

Always when suffering comes upon us it may 



THE MYSTERY OP PAIN 39 

teach us this lesson of sympathy. I remember the 
remark which a superintendent in a hospital made 
with regard to a young nurse who had just gradu- 
ated with high honors. "All she needs now to 
make her an ideal nurse is to have a real attack of 
fever." We can give sympathy so much better 
when we have suffered pain. We can give consola- 
tion so much better when we have endured be- 
reavement. We can give comfort so much better 
when we have borne despair. That is what St. Paul 
means when he says, "The God and Father of man- 
kind who comforteth us in all our affliction, com- 
fort you that we may be able to comfort them that 
are in any affliction." 

Is not this one of the reasons why pain exists in 
the world and has it not its place in the divine econ- 
omy, in that it cultivates sympathy and love? I 
would not advocate any morbid seeking of pain, 
such as the ascetics of the middle ages pursued, who 
slept in hair-shirts and on boards pierced with 
sharply-pointed nails in order to cultivate humility 
of spirit. But when pain knocks at our door, then 
are we to understand that it comes to speak to us 
a message of sympathy for those who suffer. St. 
Paul exemplified the truth of this when he wrote to 
his companions and called them "fellow sufferers" 
and "fellow prisoners." They were all bound in one 
communion of suffering. 

But greatest of all Jesus Christ Himself illustrates 
the fellowship of suffering. God came down and 



40 SOME OF LIFE'S MY'STERIES 

took man's nature upon Himself and humbled Him- 
self to the death upon the cross for us who lay in 
darkness and the shadow of death. God thereby 
reveals His sympathy for us in our sufferings and 
teaches us the lesson of sympathy with all those 
who suffer. 

(3) Through pain we may learn the goodness of 
God. That seems a paradox but very often para- 
doxes are true in life. How can suffering reveal 
the goodness of God? Is it not by showing that 
health and strength and happiness and joy are 
things for which we should be thankful to God? 
He is the giver of all good gifts and we should 
praise Him every day of our lives for His manifold 
blessings to us. Days of cloud and rain we know 
are necessary to make us appreciate the sunshine. 
Days of sickness are necessary to make us ap- 
preciate health. Days of sorrow are necessary to 
make us appreciate joy. 

But may we not also be thankful for the days of 
cloud and sickness and sorrow themselves. We 
know the rain has its uses as well as the sunshine. 
So, also, with sickness and sorrow. They have 
their value for us. In their school-room we may 
learn spiritual knowledge. "It is good for me," 
writes the psalmist, "that I have been in trouble, 
that I may learn Thy statutes." When one tosses 
upon a bed of pain, he must not think God is far 
from him. He is as close to us as our thoughts. 



THE MYSTERY OF PAIN 41 

"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow 
of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." 

All that I have said about suffering is to be 
found in the Christian doctrine of the Cross, which 
the Church has taught for so many ages. 

The Cross shows that the Christ suffered for 
the sins of humanity — because sin always brings 
with it suifering, somehow, sometime. 

The Cross shows that the Christ saved the world 
from its sins — because suifering cleanses and purges 
from sin. 

The Cross shows that God loves us — He does not 
leave us to suffer alone, but suffers with us, being 
"touched with the feeling of our infirmities." 

The Cross in the light of the Resurrection shows 
that there is a glory which is obtainable only 
through suiferi'ng. 

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present 
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory 
that shall be revealed in us." 

In those hours when we are laid low by sickness 
and are bowed under the yoke of pain we are to re- 
member these truths, and face suffering not in the 
spirit of rebellion but in the spirit of patience, "giv- 
ing thanks always for all things," rejoicing that we 
are partakers with Christ in His sufferings and 
that we are doing our share in the divine process 
of redemption. 



The Mystery of Death 



The Mystery of Death 

A great council of all the chiefs and princes of 
the Britons had been called at Goodmanhaus in 
Northumbria. There sat in that great banquet hall 
of the King's castle a hundred armored warriors 
with all the pride of their manly strength. Rich 
tapestry walled the room, huge oak beams braced 
the high vaulted ceiling. Here was primitive pomp 
and power. Upon a raised dais at one end of the 
room sat the King of Northumbria surrounded by 
his court and body-guard. Down on the floor of the 
hall, on one side stood a group of Druid priests all 
dressed in brown, and on the other side, a group of 
Christian monks, all garbed in black cassocks, with 
their hair tonsured to represent the crown of thorns 
which the Saviour wore at His trial. An aged noble 
rose to speak and there was silence in the hall. 

"The life of man, O King, in comparison with 
that unknown life beyond, is like a sparrow's flight 
through the hall, when we sit in winter time at 
meat, a goodly fire on the hearth but the snow- 
storm beating without. The sparrow flies in 
through one door and for awhile is safe in the 
warmth, but then he flies out at another door into 
the dark winter from whence he came. So is the 
life of man for a short space ; but of what he was 
before and of what is to follow after, we have no 



45 



46 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

knowledge. If this new Christian doctrine will tell 
us aught of that, then let us follow it." 

And from the little group of Roman monks, there 
stepped forward one whose name was Paulinus and 
spoke so eloquently of heaven and the future life 
that he won the support of all the chieftains there 
and changed the whole course of English history. 

The same question which was asked at that coun- 
cil in Northumbria is being asked today in a hun- 
dred thousand different places. This war with its 
enormous toll of human life has brought home to 
us as never before the mystery of death. It is the 
same mystery as before, but it has been forced upon 
our thought by the casualties of war. "If a man 
die, shall he live again?" we cry, even as did Job 
in that ancient drama of life. Think of it! Ten 
million souls blotted out of earthly existence i-n the 
four years past, men who were the strongest, the 
most useful, the most loved. And now we in this 
country are beginning to feel the deep sorrow that 
must have lain over the warring nations for these 
several years, as we see the ever-growing casualty 
lists of the daily newspapers. Have these men sim- 
ply given up a hopeless existence in a righteous 
cause ? Was their sacrifice only a noble mistake ; or 
do they live in a more glorious world beyond? Is 
there any immortality other than that of human 
memory and granite and marble? Shall their loved 
ones greet them once more at some future time, the 
child returned to his father's embrace? These and 



THE MYSTERY OP DEATH 47 

countless other queries are on the lips of thousands 
in these dark days. Some turn to science for an 
answer, some to religion, and from each an answer 
is received. 

I wi'sh to summarize, if I may, the answers which 
come to us from these two fields of knowledge. For 
that reason, we are going to do away, for the time 
being, with any revealed knowledge. We will not 
resort to any truth from the Bible or any dogma 
of the Church and say you must believe it because 
it is written or because it is taught. Every doctrine 
to be worth while must be made personal; it must 
appeal to one as credible and not contrary to reason, 
in order to be of value to the individual in his own 
life. A faith which prides itself on contradicting 
reason and the five senses is not built upon a stable 
foundation. It will not support one in time of crisis, 
when it is most needed. Faith must go beyond 
reason, but it must not contradict reason. I want 
you to get from this address this most valuable 
truth for your lives : there is nothing that contra- 
dicts reason in the belief in immortality; in fact 
it is most unreasonable not to believe in it ; the evi- 
dences of science, ethics and religion point to its 
truth. It is true I do not expect to prove it by 
logical processes of demonstration, but I do hope to 
appeal to the faith which lies in you — Which faculty 
God has given you as a channel of knowledge as 



48 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

truly as the intellect — so that you will feel certain of 
the truth of immortality. 

I. And first as to the results of science. 

I will omit the results of Psychical Research 
which has sought to investigate spirit appearances 
and mental telepathy. There is so much that is chaff 
mingled with the wheat that it is very difficult to 
distinguish between the two. Nevertheless, great 
mi'uds, astute thinkers and keen scientists, such as 
Sir Oliver Lodge, have been won over by the so- 
called proofs of the re-appearing of departed 
persons. 

(1) I will proceed at once to the evidences that 
come to us from a study of Comparative Religions. 
To the student of world-religions, there is one strik- 
ing fact which impresses itself upon the inquiring 
mind. It is the universality and the persistence of a 
belief of some sort in a life after death. Almost 
all races and peoples from the primitive to the most 
highly civilized, in spite of the fact that they can- 
not see a spirit after death, nevertheless believe that 
the spirit still lives. The mere fact that the belief 
is almost universal is not of itself convincing— all 
people at one time believed the earth was flat — but 
the fact that the belief in a future life has per- 
sisted from generation to generation, and this, in 
spite of the testimony of the senses which behold 
only the dissolution of the body, — that fact, I say, 



THE MYSTERY OF DEATH 49 

entitles the belief to be considered an instinct of 
the human race. God has implanted many instincts 
in our being, but every instinct has a meaning. 
The mother's instinct would be meaningless, were 
there no children ; hunger would be meaningless, 
were there no food; thirst would be meaningless, 
were there no water. So also the instinctive belief 
in a life after death strongly indicates the reality of 
such a life. 

(2) Let us now proceed to the argument from 
Biology. In tracing the development of life through 
various forms from the lowest, say the oyster, to 
the highest, man, it becomes clear that the purpose 
of the process of evolution is the emancipation of 
the soul from the body. In the lowest forms, we 
have the complete subordination of mind to matter ; 
in the highest forms, we have the complete superior- 
ity of mind over matter. We see in different per- 
sons a great difference in regard to this ; we call the 
difference one of personality or strength of will- 
power. The development of personality consists 
in the subjugation of the senses and the passions 
to the will. In every stage of evolution in nature, 
it is the few who progress, the many who remain 
unevolved. 

What does this process of evolution point to? Dr. 
James A. Hadfield, a famous scientist and a surgeon 
in the Royal English Navy, gives the answer: "Be- 
fore birth we were undifferentiated souls, we were 



50 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

parts of the cosmic mind, we were as water drawn 
in a pitcher from the mind pool. Our destiny is to 
grow personalities out of the raw material with 
which we began life." 

It is quite evident from such a conclusion that 
the state of one's future life is conditional upon 
one's life here. There are many who never evolve 
personalities, they are subject to their bodily desires 
and passions, their wills do not dominate their ac- 
tions, they are not individuals in any true sense, 
they have missed the purpose of life. The purpose 
of this life is to test and try and to differentiate souls 
so as to prove which are worthy of the highest life 
beyond or rather which are capable of such a life. 
The difference will be one therefore of degree. We 
know that within each one of us is a lower self, 
which is our heritage from the animal kingdom, and 
that there is a higher self, which is divine, and from 
the struggle between the two is developed the bes- 
tial and the best of humanity. "As is the earthy, 
such are they also that are earthy; and as is the 
heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." 

It is possible to achieve the highest immortality. 
Every time we conquer over the lust of the flesh, 
every time we resist the temptation to selfishness, 
every time we do an heroic and self-sacrificing act, 
as do the soldiers in giving their lives for their coun- 
try, every time we feed and nourish the higher life 
in prayer and love and faith, this corruptible is put- 
ting on incorruption, this mortal is putting on im- 



THE MYSTERY OP DEATH 51 

mortality, and then shall be brought to pass the 
saying that is written, ''Death is swallowed up in 
victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, 
where is thy victory?" 

(3) There is another sci'entific proof of immor- 
tality — from the field of Anthropology. When we 
compare man and the lower animals, we find that 
not only in the body but in the mind do they differ. 
Man has reason, a sense of the beautiful, a sense 
of worship, a sense of right and wrong. We can 
find no trace of these in any of the animals. Do 
not these belong to man's higher nature, and is it 
likely that a God who created these would allow 
them to perish with the dissolution of the body? 
There lare no physical aspects to correspond to these 
peculiar characteristics of man. They do not die 
with the body, therefore. They are introduced 
somewhere in the evolutionary process by the Mas- 
ter of the Universe and with them is introduced also 
the possibility of immortality. 

For why should God have developed in man facul- 
ties out of all proportion to the necessities of life 
here in this world — we could live, as the animals 
do, without them — if man is not to make use of 
them in another and more complete life? No, there 
is a richer and fuller world where our sense of 
reasoning shall dwell on God's truth, where our 
sense of beauty shall feast on God's glory, where 
our sense of justice shall be satisfied in God's good- 



52 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

ness ,where our sense of worship shall be exalted in 
God's majesty. These human faculties are but fore- 
shadowings of the divine. 

So it is that the Theory of Evolution, which was 
supposed at first to destroy all possibility of im- 
mortality by showing that we are descended from 
the animals in body, upon being re-interpreted, 
points directly to the belief in a future life by show- 
ing that we are different from the animals in our 
minds. 

(4) Is there not also a large degree of light to 
be thrown upon the problem by the very fact that 
science has opened up to us a new world — a world 
of law? It has whetted our curiosity, as it were. 
There are so many mysteries which are yet un- 
solved, so many dark places upon which no light has 
been thrown. The victories of modern science have 
only increased our yearning. "On earth to many a 
noble-hearted student of the universe," as someone 
has said, "the sting of death is ignorance." To die 
without knowing the answers to these riddles of the 
universe, to have one's life snuffed out without 
knowing any better the meaning of creation — this 
could not be God's purpose for us, the God of light 
and truth and goodness — and I, for one, approach 
that portal of the dawn which we call death with 
a reverent curiosity. 



THE MYSTERY OP DEATH 53 

II. What are the reasons which religion can ad- 
vance for a belief in the future life? 

There is in the Bible a clear statement of what 
our Lord regarded as the main reason for His be- 
lief: "As touching the dead that they are raised, 
have ye not read in the Book of Moses in the place 
concerning the Bush, how God spake unto him, say- 
ing, 'I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac 
and the God of Jacob?' He is not the God of the 
dead, but of the living." 

At first blush, this seeming appeal to a proof- 
text is not at all convincing, but our Lord's inter- 
pretation of it shows on deeper insight great depth 
of reasoning To say that God is the God of Abra- 
ham and of Isaac and of Jacob is to say that He is 
a God of persons, that He values each one as an 
individual, that He bears a relation of affection 
for each one. This is the chief and the most cogent 
reason for believing in a personal immortality — the 
fact that God cares for human beings not merely as 
humanity in general but as souls in particular. He 
loves us as His children. God is not simply a blind 
force behind all nature or the vague spiritual back- 
ground behind all existence. He is a personal Being 
capable of love. The highest thing on earth is per- 
sonality, that is the supreme acme of the evolution- 
ary process, and shall we say that the Creator is 
less than the creature, that the Cause is less than 
the effect? O let us not make God less than our- 
selves ! Rather the best in us is only the reflection 



54 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 



1 



of God. The noblest personality we know on earth 
is the man of love and sympathy. Is it not true 
then that God is infinite love and compassion? 
"God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all 
things." 

What follows then ? Just this : As surely as 
there is a good God in heaven, so there is a future 
life for those who love Him. Let me show you why 
this second truth necessarily flows from the first. 

Unless there were a future life, there would be 
no distinction between right and wrong and this 
would not be a moral universe and the Creator not 
a morally good God. It is a truth that needs no 
arsfument that here in this world euilt often has 
happiness and innocence is on the scaffold. "The 
wicked flourish as the green bay tree." If God is 
a good God. a just God, as we know He is. there 
must be a time when these injustices of life will be 
straightened out and righteousness receive its full 
reward. 

Unless there were a future life, pain and suffering, 
sorrow and agony would be without meaning. They 
could not be in a universe created by a good God. 
When we consider only the agonies of man's pres- 
ent existence, we are driven into pessimism, and 
are forced to admit that if there is no happier world 
hereafter, it were better that he had neve:* been born. 
In one way we have more suffering than the lower 
animals for they do not look forward to suffering. 



THE MYSTERY OP DEATH 55 

They do not anticipate trouble, they have no worries 
or anxieties. If men were convinced that there is 
no life after death, suicide would be common, es- 
pecially among the more sensitive. But when we 
realize, as is undoubtedly true, that this world is a 
testing world, that pain and trouble develop per- 
sonality, rendering it capable of immortality, then 
the reason for these things in a good universe con- 
trolled by a good God becomes at once apparent, 
and we are at once given courage and strength to 
bear our cross, knowing that he who suffers with 
Christ will also be glorified with Him. 

Unless there were a future life, all our love for 
each other here would be but a tragedy, begetting 
only pain and bringing with it only ultimate disas- 
ter. All love must cause suffering through sym- 
pathy or else it is not love, and if love were to 
end in annihilation, the greatest wisdom would be 
not to love, to starve that instinct of human na- 
ture. When we see the one whom we have loved 
lowered into the grave, if that is all there is to our 
beautiful relationship, then are we of all creatures 
the most miserable. God would not be a god but a 
devil to wrest from our arms those to whom we cling 
so desperately, unless we were to be joined with 
them once more under much happier conditions. 
Never doubt but that God has implanted in our 
hearts that instinct of love which is the most won- 
derful thing in life as the token, the earnest of a 



56 SOME OF LIFE'S MYSTERIES 

life to come. It is the foreshadowing of things to 
be. Here all love is incomplete. We always feel 
that there is some barrier which prevents us from 
entire union of soul and soul. It is because we are 
encased in separate bodies with minds which are 
like sealed books to one another. But there all that 
we hoped for, dreamed of, will come true, and the 
life which is begun here and but partially realized 
will there be enriched and fulfilled. The barrier 
has been broken down and now there is no longer 
separation but union in the Eternal Spirit. "Every 
one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. 
He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is 
love." 

It is this social reason for immortality which ap- 
peals to me personally more than any other. One 
would hardly care about a solitary immortality, a 
continuance of this life for its own joys. But one 
would care most intensely for an immortality where 
one is in perfect communion with those who have 
gone before, with the saints of the ages, with the 
loved ones whom he has lost awhile, with God the 
Father who is above all things most lovable. It is 
to such a Heaven that those who seek those things 
which are above may look forward with entire con- 
fidence. 



I 



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